The Guardian reports that hospital doctors are being sent home from daytime shifts and told to come back and work overnight, a stark illustration of the NHS’s crippling staff shortage.
Hospital bosses are forcing last-minute shift changes on junior doctors – trainees below the level of consultant up to the level of senior registrar – because staff sickness and the scarcity of locum medics has left them struggling to ensure patients’ safety is maintained overnight.
One trainee doctor in south-west of England told how they started their shift as planned at 8am. However, “by mid-morning the doctor that was meant to be working that night, that I would hand over to, had called in ill”.
They added: “As day shifts are easier to cover by pulling other doctors from clinics and educational opportunities I was asked to leave work and come back that night to work the on-call night shift instead.”
Full story in The Guardian, 11 July 2022